27 July 2014

Happy Sunday!

This morning almost began on Saturday. Okay, it wasn't that early, but 4:45 is a tough time to wake up. My flight left Kansas City at 6:25. I sat in the exit row as the plane sped to Detroit. We landed in Detroit 20 minutes early which gave me plenty of time to make it across the terminal to gate A61. My next flight also made it in early as it landed in Bangor.

While I waited for my team to drive up after the morning worship services and pick me up, I chatted with Abby, a friend from college. It was nice to hear a familiar voice that has no trace of an eastern accent. When they did arrive, my team greeted me with a big group hug an a sign written in lemon-scented highlighter with "Welcome Back Mr. Woods" on it. They make a great welcoming committee.

We had a fifth person with the team today, Amy. She is on the national staff for ACMNP. Each summer, someone from the national office makes it to each of the 20+ ministry team locations to check on the ACMNPers. We were lucky enough to get Amy. Although, I hear everyone from the national staff team makes a great short-term addition to the park team.

During the afternoon, the five of us tore up Bangor. We hit up Sam's Club to buy industrial-sized boxes of Goldfish. While there, we watched a live infomercial on a food slicer. For being such a good audience, the nice man gave us each a peeler. Next, we went to the thrift shop to buy a bunch of ugly, uh, I mean stylish, clothes. I picked up a nice blazer and a fall flannel for $8. On the drive back to Bar Harbor, Amy and I had a competition to see who could fit the most Goldfish in our mouths at one time. We called it "Chubby Fishy." At 52 we decided neither one of us would gain much if we won besides pain and a even saltier mouth. We called it a tie. Later on, Luke beat us by stuffing 60. Ally matched that. Sabrina never did have a big desire to stuff salty snacks into her mouth. She called it quits at 20. To wash down the Goldfish, we went to a local lobster pound to get lobster rolls. Lobster rolls are a much more authentic seafood item than Goldfish.

The rain moved in during the drive back to Acadia. The rain stopped but the fog stayed as we reached the top of Cadillac Mountain to prepare for the sunset worship service. Unsurprisingly, no one showed up to a sunset service on a 100 foot visibility evening. Instead, the five of us broke out the worship books and sometimes raucous and sometimes melodious rounds of worship songs. We wrapped up the evening in a tight-knit circle as we praised, prayed, petitioned. The drive down the mountain was terribly frightening in the pea-soup fog, but we made it...obviously.

After our team meeting, I opened my closet in the dorm room to find three of my pre-made bags of nut and granola snacks with holes chewed through them. I am quite sure it is from a mouse. How can I tell? There is the distinctive smell of a dead mouse nearby. My theory: Mr. Mouse thought he was being real smart by gathering food from plastic bags. As it turns out, he made a tactical error and ate way too much plastic for his little body to handle. Poor thing.

No picture of the day for a while. My camera isn't working for some reason so I have to figure out what's going on with it.